Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Rules for salaried employees
I work for an individual in an Administrative position in a field that requires I have a State License. (which I do) I am salaried. My employee purposely pays me less than the required 2 times state minimum wage to knock me out of the exempt catagory and ''subsidizes) my income with earned bonus checks when he decides to run a ''bonus'' program every now an again.
My question delema is this.. I am required to work MANY hours of overtime, sometimes 12 hour days, sometimes days with no lunch break. He gets my hours of overtime for no additional money, but will not allow me take time off without subracting it from my pay. I find it rather unfair for him to benefit from my extra hours of labor for nothing, yet penelize me for asking for time off that is less than the hours I have given him. Is there something I can legally do to get him in compliance with my legitimate exempt status job such as insisting that I be paid what I should really be making in monthly salary for my professinal classification. Am I stuck being asked to give my extra overtime hours to him for nothing and getting pay deducted if I take a few hours off? Help!!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Rules for salaried employees
By your employer's actions, he may have caused you to lose your exempt status, which means he would have to pay you for all the overtime hours you worked, plus an additional hour's penalty for each day you could not take a lunch break. You should be keeping track of all the hours you have worked.
You could either attempt to get him to correct the errors of his ways with the help of an attorney or file a claim with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.
Make sure everything is documented because if you get fired for this, you'll want proof that it was in retaliation for asserting your legal rights.
Re: Rules for salaried employees
Your situation is very difficult and also sounds very stressful. However, I cannot assess for if you are truly exempt as you say unless I know the position you hold, the industy you are in the license you hold as well. There are specific rules which may or may not apply depending on these factors.
If you wish to discuss further, please response. Sicerely, Beth Mora
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